Tom Cruise… yet again

Tom Cruise is being fruity again. This time he’s decided to disguise it as aiding the first responders of 9/11, an effort that is difficult to argue with. Everyone wants those people taken care of, of course they do, but at what cost?

This is a difficult thing to argue with, it really is. I feel horrible for the first responders, and they do need help, but this is not the place to get it. Never mind how questionable the treatment is. It involves 30 minutes of exercise, taking vitamins & minerals, and spending several hours a day in a dry sauna. Sure people are going to feel better, but it is not treating the toxins these rescue workers inhaled, they’re just losing weight!

I’m not surprised that City Councilman Hiram Monserrate, the host of the Cruise fund-raising dinner, claimed such extraordinary benefits from following a health-restoring regimen inspired by L. Ron Hubbard (‘Cruise Control’ Pol: It Helped Me,” April 7).

For someone of Hubbard’s genius, it’s clearly a small step to cure respiratory diseases that have baffled doctors at our best hospitals.

Hubbard’s brilliance will shine even brighter when donors respond with millions of dollars aimed at getting those 9/11 rescue workers into saunas, taking vitamins, exercising and dieting – leaving a big cut of the donations for a few at Scientology headquarters.

That same brilliance fogs minds. It makes it impossible to question Cruise’s mission, despite the fact that a membership at a YMCA with a sauna, a bottle of niacin from the corner drugstore and a month without trans fats would accomplish as much for about a hundredth the cost.
Chris Bischof
Brooklyn

Exactly! This is no different than going to the YMCA! Instead, Cruise is soliciting millions of dollars for this program, and it is estimated he has raised $4 million already. If you look at the video on this page from WABC, you will see this is being done in a very nondescript office. Why so much money? Where is it all going?

The first responders who talk in the video about the benefits, bless them, they swear the religion is not being preached, it may very well not be, but this is nothing more than a PR sham put on by the “church”. L. Ron Hubbard was a documented “exaggerator” about his military and educational record, he wrote bad sci-fi, and by no means did he have medical training to come up with a “detox program”.

In fairness, here is another letter from the same New York Post editorial page:

For a newspaper normally on the forefront of speaking out for 9/11 rescue workers, you did us all a disservice by calling the Cruise-sponsored event a fund-raiser for Scientology.

The program is secular and not run by the church.

I wonder if your medical experts, who are calling it “hocus-pocus,” have ever dealt with the sleepless nights, leg pains, tingling in their hands and breathing issues.

Thanks to the program, I don’t. It gave me and hundreds of my fellow rescue workers our lives back.

I started the program knowing nothing about Scientology, and I know nothing about it now. I just know that, thanks to them, I feel like a new person.
Steven Mona
Greenwood Lake

I hope it is helping, I really do, but the Church of Scientology is not who I would turn to for help. They are a cult, nothing more, and their methodologies have been called into question numerous times.

Someone does need to help the first responders, and everyone who suffered from that horrible and tragic day, but anytime “Tom Cruise” and “Scientology” are mentioned in connection to anything, my suspicions are immediately raised.

Related:

Since you saw fit to repost my letter to the NY Post I thought I’d add a few comments. I still know nothing about Scientology almost a year after I started and finished the detox program. I’m just wondering though. If Long Island Jewish Hospital was curing 9-11 Rescue Workers would you be worried they might be handing out the talmud? If St. Vincent’s Hospital was curing rescue workers would you be worried they might be giving us new testaments? As a member of a religion that is often misunderstood and maligned (I’m Wiccan) I can tell you one thing for sure, religious bigotry is religious bigotry. Disliking the religion you are maligning doesn’t give you carte blanc to saw what you want. You’re a bigot, simple as that.

I would recommend you read this comment left on this blog by someone involved in the field of forensics in regards to these supposed cures the Scientologists are trying to tell people they are real.

And do Jews brainwash people? Keep them locked in hotel rooms for days, deprived of food, trying to turn them? Scientology is not a religion except in the sense they filed the proper papers with the government. They are a cult. Period. They are no better than Jones Town. Be sure to avoid the Kool-Aid. I will be turning your comment into an entry. Thanks for the content suggestion!

Steve Mona

You conveniently avoided the main portion of my comment which stated that Scientology is not any part of the rescue workers detox program. There was no “kool-aid” to drink. Fact is the program is based on L. Ron Hubbarb’s program and the head administrators, two of them, are Scientologists, the connections ends there. No one else there is affiliated with the church . The head doctor supervising is a Presbyterian minister, both doctors at the center are Jewish. The head medical tech is Jewish, one of the assistants is Christian. The rest of the staff is a sprinkling of “mainstream” religions. It’s narrow minded people like you that are keeping the one program that is curing rescue workers from being made available to more of us. Curing us Sean, not masking symptoms by handing us inhalers and steriods and telling us nothing is wrong. For example, Sarcoidosis effects less than 1 in 10,000 people. 27 members of the NYPD have it. Thier only connection? Guess. The other fact is that a year later I’ve never once been asked to even read about Scientology, never been asked to join in any sort of way. Lastly, I don’t need to read a comment left by a forensic anything. I am living proof, along with over 800 others, that the program works. Medications before the program: 3 (some were taking up to 9) Medications now: None. Sleep before the program: 2-3 hours of unrestful sleep nightly. Now: 7-8 hours. Tingling in my hands and legs: gone; Breathing problems: gone. Weight before 9-11: 205 Ater 9-11: 255-260; Now: 225 and dropping. Irritability: gone. Waiting to get sick: gone. Post this too but in the future, since I gave you my real email address have the courtesy of sending an email letting me know you responded to my comment.

No, I did not “conveniently” avoid anything, Steve. I addressed that in the original post, and my newest post. I have now said, repeatedly, that I hoped this helped you. I am looking for answers and documentation. I have NO beef with you personally. You wrote a letter to The New York Post, I reposted it to be fair. I have ZERO argument with you as a person. If you feel better, great! I am *truly* thrilled. Does it erase the history of the “church”? No. I don’t trust them, and I never will. They are a cult.

As for people who work there being of other religions? That’s a conveniant out the Scientologists use to get more recruits. You can still belong to mainstream religions AND theres at the same time. Not knowing these people, I can’t say if this is true in their case or not, but it has been known to happen.

Steve, again, I have no beef with you. My beef is with the Church of Scientology. You say the connection ends with the two head administrators. No it doesn’t. If it did, Tom Cruise would not be involved in the fundraising. And based on L. Ron Hubbard’s program? When Did Hubbard ever have medical training? He was a hack sci fi writer! I highly recommend you do some research into the “church” and their activities before you go around defending them. And, I am going to stress this for the very last time, if you feel better, I’m thrilled. I have nothing but the utmost repect for the men and women who went in to that tragedy. I will not, however, sing the praises of this so called “church” for one POSSIBLE good deed when they have a track record a mile long of mis-deeds.

Lastly, no, I will not email you when I leave a comment. That’s not how blog commenting works. Look in the left hand column, very bottom, there is a “Comments RSS” you can subscribe to. I don’t know of any blogger in the world who emails people saying “Hey, I left a comment on my own blog for you to read.”

Dave2

Steve Mona, you should consider the possibility that, even though you got better after using Scientology’s detox program, nevertheless the Church is a scam. Why not read some stuff about Scientology? Maybe the LA Times series from 1990, or the Time magazine story from 1991, or the biography of Hubbard (_Bare Faced Messiah_)? Or, if you want to see some of the ridiculous texts that Scientology puts into public view, see Hubbard’s _History of Man_.